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Cumulus Buffalo GM Goes Bye-Bye

Any scuttlebutt that might verify - or deny - Jerry DelColliano's pronouncement that Cumulus plans to acquire Townsquare in two years?

If so that's just profoundly sad IMHO. And wouldn't such a purchase put them in the crosshairs of ownership limits (such as they are) in Buffalo?
 
There would absolutely have to be divestiture in Buffalo if that happened - and you'd better believe that Entercom would be very interested in acquiring FMs in place of their AMs. Jerry's often got some pretty intersting insider information. On its surface, you've got two groups essentially owned by banks, and bank are notorious for not wanted to run businesses. Their money's in buying and selling, not owning. OTOH, Townsquare is primarily a small-to-mid market type of company. Does Cumulus really want to own a bunch of small-to-mid market stations?

Cumulus may be thinking that their "proven systems" and syndicated programs could wring more "synergies" out of those little markets. I don't think that worked so well for Clear Channel, who got out of most small markets during their contraction a few years ago. And, what's the value of those stations in an uneasy market? If Cumulus is right, and the masses in the sticks are just dying for access to big-city sydication, the Internet will deliver that just fine. If they're wrong, and local programming matters, there go the "synergies". Townsquare still seems to be delivering industry-average profits - around 35%. That's a pretty sound return on the banks investment, isn't it?

But, hey, what do I know. The suits are WAY smarter than I am. Maybe Farid will jump back in.
 
SirRoxalot said:
But, hey, what do I know. The suits are WAY smarter than I am. Maybe Farid will jump back in.
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Why not, he bailed out with a $35 million parachute. As to JDC, two years is a long time in any business, especially media and radio. As for Chet, always a decent guy. Good luck with Saga, a company that's strong and well operated by Ed Christian, who offered his observations about radio and new media a few days ago in TRI.
 
May seem like a step down, but you have to think that it's a much more stable position than being a former Citadel guy tasked with converting everyone to "the Cumulus way". Who would you rather work for - Ed Christian, or the Dickey brothers?
 
"A ship without a captain leaves a crew concerned and a course uncharted." -Sailors adage.

"When the GM bails out, it's not a good sign." -Radio 101 (The staff might be a little nervous these days.)

"Who's Next" -The Who (Bring somebody in from the Dickey School of Corporate Management or promote from within?)
 
Nice gig. Saga owns EVERYTHING of consequence in Ithaca.
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Except for WFIZ / Z95 which, last I looked at the ratings (admittedly about 1.5 years ago) was trouncing anything Saga had to offer.

And don't forget public radio WSKG, which does quite well in Ithaca, and WVBR which does pretty well, considering, too.
 
aaronread said:
Nice gig. Saga owns EVERYTHING of consequence in Ithaca.
Click to expand...

Except for WFIZ / Z95 which, last I looked at the ratings (admittedly about 1.5 years ago) was trouncing anything Saga had to offer.
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It's a shame that Saga was "the" client keeping Arbitron going in Ithaca. Don't know if any other stations were subscribing, but if there were, apparently there weren't enough subscribers to keep things profitable for Arbitron, so the simply gave up on rating the market. I recall an article awhile back which all but blamed Saga for killing ratings in a few other small markets where it has a dominant presence.

I'm curious to know how sales reps manage to sell airtime without ratings. Do they just lean on the station's reputation and hope the client is a big enough fan to agree and hand over a big check? Or are they still using the last book, hoping nobody questions the accuracy of such stale numbers?
 
The same question might be asked of the Cumulus stations in Buffalo as they are said to be selling without benefit of the book. Pricing the product without the benefit of a ratings baseline might be more of a challenge in a market like Buffalo, but aside from relationship selling, the ultimate sales metric is response and results.
 
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